Grants proposed to prevent campus sex assaults

Preventing campus sexual assaults was the focus of a bill heard by the Judiciary Committee Feb. 5.

LB1027, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, would provide grants to fund programs addressing sexual assault on college campuses. Morfeld said the issue is a real problem on campuses but is rarely discussed.

“Sexual assault is a cancer upon our society and like cancer, we cannot ignore it,” he said. “We must aggressively address it with resources, education and awareness.”

Grant funds could be used for training, education, awareness, prevention, reporting, bystander intervention and research-based threat assessment programs to improve the safety of students on campus.

Mary Chinnock Petroski, Title IX coordinator at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, supported the bill. She said that addressing campus sexual assault with incoming freshmen is particularly important.

“Students cannot learn unless their basic needs are met, which includes feeling safe in their learning environment,” she said. “Additional funds would allow us to use [different methods] to address sexual assault. All students deserve to feel safe at school and LB1027 would help us to reach that goal.”

Public and nonpublic colleges and universities could apply by Oct. 1 for funding for programs to begin Jan. 1 each year. Funds would be granted based on eligibility, program description, budget goals and performance measures. The program would be concluded by Dec. 1 of the year in which grant funds are awarded.

The grant program would be funded by a $500,000 appropriation to the Office of the Attorney General each year, beginning with the 2016-2018 biennium.

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.